that he should doubt of the Word of God and of his most merciful and gracious promise pretending that God was not his friend thus to suffer him to endure hunger so long in the desart But now if this temptation doth not worâ— with Christians then this enemy sets upon men with anothet temptation on the other side or extream and would have them to rely upon God for more then he hath promised them in his Word Deut 10. for so he endeavoured to perswade even Christ himself viz. that he should cast himself down Math. 4. from the highest top of the Temple for God will sufficiently protect and defend him But now if this will not do he will yeâ— shamelesly have a third temptation and this is by promising Riches viz. that for mony and temporal honours sake he should depart from God from his Divine Word and become an Idolator and fall down and worship himself viz. Sathan Thus feared he not boldly to wrestle with Christ himself and to drive him to a fall The which also the faithfull God and Father in Heaven Job 2. doth out of his peculiar Counsel and for certain causes sometimes permit such a thing to be done against his own people that so they may by this means grow and encrease in faith hope patience in a true and right invocation or prayer unto God and may by those rudiments or beginnings and exercisings of the Cross well prepare to themselves the way to the last conflict viz. of death which our old man must necessarily undergo and that they may by this means obtain an eternal victory against that enemy the which will come to pass if they first know all his tricks and most crafty snares and do then valiantly and stoutly accomplish that as by the divine grace meets with and opposeth him For whereas we are to fight and strive not with flesh and blood but with Principalities and Powers as Saint Paul speaks viz. with the chiefest of this world who rule in the darkness of this world and with the evil Spirits under heaven therefore we are not in the least able to resist them or their spiritual temptations by our own proper strength and power but here we must according to the example of Christ our Saviour and standard-bearer lay hold on spiritual weapons and with them and the Word of God as with the sword of the Spirit Ephes. 6. in or by Faith are those our spiritual enemies to be smitten and overcome And to this purpose 't will seem necessary for us to do as that Christian warriour Saint Paul the Apostle in Eph 6. commands to be done viz. We must betake our selves to the armoury or store-house of the holy Spirit and there 1 Tim. 6. take the iron breast-plate of God and put it on and our loins must be girt with truth and we must be clad with the breast-plate of righteousness and our feet must be shod or harnessed as ready prepared for the Gospel of peace and le ts take the sword of the Spirit the which as we said before is the Word of God But above all things let us take the shield of faith by which we shall be able to blot out and quench all the fiery darts of the devil for the faith in Jesus Christ is a most firm buckler the which the Devil can never perforate nor possibly wound the heart through it Moreover whereas the regiment of the fire also in the Philosophick work is to be heeded with the greatest diligence and must necessarily be administred and attended on in the coction or digestion of the matter without ceasing and even as we have afore briefly mentioned the Philosophical fire by which the whole business is chiefly to be perfected vâ—z what it properly is and how called viz. an essential a preternatural and a divine fire that lies hid in the compound and unto which must be afforded or administred an help and stirring up with the terrene material fire 1 Tim. 1. Even so likewise is the pure Word of God or which is the same the Spirit of God which is also compared with a fire Jerem. 23. and is so called hidden in us men forasmuch as it was indeed implanted in us by nature but by the corruption thereof was again blotted out and made dark Phil. 3. And therefore must there be an helping and succour exhibited after such a manner by as 't were a certain other external fire that is by a continual and daily use and exercise of Piety and Christian Vertues in the time of joy and sadness as also by a diligent consideration of the pure divine Word if at least we would have that internal light of grace that is granted unto us and the Spirit of God to operate and work in us and not be plainly extinguished Eccles. 10. and with this aid and assistance must it be continually blown up and incessantly quickned without wearisomness and desistency As for instance t is wont thus to be done in earthly things for if a workman strongly files Iron which in it self is cold it will by the continuance of that motion become hot So a Light or Lamp Col. 3. unless it be continually nourished with supply of oyl 't will at length fail and be extinguished Even thus it is with man as to his internal fire except it be daily and without wearisomness and tediousness exercised as we said above it doth by little and little decrease until at length he be deprived wholly thereof Upon which account the Word of God as we have often informed you and as an important necessity requires it is to be diligently heard well considered of and to be exercised without ceasing And what we have here spoken as to hearing thereof the which is not to be done only with the external and beastlike eyes but with the internal eyes of the mind 1 Tim 1. the same is to be understood of the sight after the same manner But that you may the better understand my meaning know that I speak of the right and pure Word of God and not of those humane glosses or expositions of either the Antients or Modern nor of the Pharisaical Ferment and Leaven of the Scribes Rom. 16. which with grief be it spoken is now adaies preferred before the divine Word or at leastwise though it be but as it were mouse-dung mixed with pepper is earnestly prest upon men to be heard and accounted of as the preaching of the word of God But I mean no such thing in the least Those kinds of trifles and such Sermons as fill the ears of men only I value not a rush nor do I here speak of such but I speak according as we have mentioned it in its proper place of the true and clarified Word of God Psalm 19. 119. that passed out of the mouth of God Deut. 8. Mat. 4. and is even yet to this day preached by the holy Spirit 1 Cor. 1. the which is not only as some do reproachfully
of mustard-seed leaven c. as in Luke 18. Mat. 13. 23. Luke 19. Mat. 20. Moreover when he prefigurates to us the Kingdom of heaven he proposeth to us the parable of the great Supper and the wedding of the King Even as also he compares the whole Christian-Church and the state thereof with a Vineyard and a King requiring an account from his Servants Likewise also he useth a similitude of a noble Lord who committed his goods to his servants and of a lost sheep and Ox and of a lost Son and other such like Parables See Mat. 18. Luke 16. Mat. 25. Luke 18. Mark 12. Luke 10. Seeing therefore that such like examples and similitudes were solely and alone given for this end that that which is Celestial and consequently difficult to comprehend by reason of humane frailty might be the easier understood and better conceived of by us How much rather therefore seemeth it expedient that the eternal God should propose unto us by some corporal figure the highest good viz. His Son and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who by his obedience and merit freed all mankind from eternal death and restored the Kingdom of heaven again unto them For verily that most high mysterie of God Almighty is most difficultly comprehended by mankind Ephes. 3. Colos. 1. Esay 45. verse 8. Let the heavens send down dew and the clouds rain on the just Let the earth open it self and wax green and bring forth a Saviour And although that this hath been signified unto us in the Old Testament and elswhere in other types as in the sacrifice of Isaac in Jacobs Ladder and in the selling and wonderful state of Joseph and in the brazen Serpent in Sampson David and Jonas c. Yet nevertheless the Omnipotent God hath shewed or taught and clearly discovered to us men in the great Book of Nature this high and Celestial good by another certain wonderful and secret thing and that very abundantly that so we may be able to have likewise by this means or on this account even a certain corporeal visible and apprehensible idea of those Celestial goods and benefits The which terrestrial and corporeal thing he himself hath so proposed or published in his Word where he speaks thus by his Prophet Isaiah in Ch. 28. viz. Behold I lay in Sion a Corner stone a tryed and well-founded stone he that believes makes not haste Likewise also the Kingly Prophet David speaks thus by the Spirit of God in the 118. Psalm viz. The stone which the builders refused is become the Corner-stone This is the Lords doing and is wonderful in our eyes This prefiguration or representation also the now-spoken-of Corner-stone Christ himself doth in Mat. 21. derive or convert unto himself saying Did you never read in the Scriptures The stone which the builders refused is become the Corner-stone this is the Lords doing and is wonderful in our eyes he that falls against it shall be broken but he upon whom it shall fall shall be ground to powder This likewise Saint Peter in Acts 4. and in his Epistle So also Paul in Rom. 9. doth repeat and describe this in almost the self-same words Now all the chief Fathers and holy Patriarcks as also all their successors illuminated by God did ever since the beginning of the world expect with great desire that proved blessed and Celestial Stone Jesus Christ Luke 10. v. 23 24. and earnestly endeavoured by their utmost and chiefest prayers that it would please God to communicate unto them according to his promises the beholding of Christ even in a bodily and visible shape Rom. 10. v. 12 13. and therefore having rightly known and obtained him in the Spirit they were then delighted with him all their life time and consequently did in all dangers even to the end of their lives trust upon that invisible prop and support But although that that heavenly and blessed stone was given by God to all mankind without exceptions of rich or poor and that without any merit viz. freely as Mat. 11. v. 6. yet nevertheless there have been but a very few in this world even from the beginning to this very day that could find it and apprehend or comprehend it but rather hath it been at all times hidden from the greatest part of men and hath alwaies been a grievous offence and scandal or stumbling to them as Isaiah in the eighth Chapter prophesied thereof saying It shall be a stone of offence and a rock of stumbling Also a pit and a gin where many shall stumble fall and be broken and took and ensnared The which heavenly stone old Father Simeon saw in the Spirit in Luke 2. v. 34. where he saith to Mary the Mother of that Celestial Corner-stone viz. Behold behold this stone is set for the falling and rising of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against The like doth S. Paul also testifie in Rom. 9. v. 32. saying They stumbled at the stumbling stone and at thâ— rock of offence but he who believeth in him shall not be confounded So likewise Sainâ— Peter in his first Epistle Chap. 2. v. 7 8. c. This stone is precious to those thaâ— believe but to the unbelieving a stone oâ— offence and of stumbling and a rock oâ— scandal even to them which stumblâ— at the Word and believe not on him iâ— or by whom they are placed oâ— built up Eccles. 43. So therefore shall now shew here fundamentally how the now mentioned precious blessed anâ— heavenly stone doth artificially or harmoniously agree with this so-oft-mentioned terrestrial Corporeal Philosophical stone I will shew both their descriptions and the comparison of the one with the other Whereby it shall be known and seen even invincibly viz. how the terrestrial Philosophical stone may be accounted as a true type of the true spiritual and heavenly stone Jesus Christ and how he is herein set before us and discovered as 't were in a visible shape by God even in a Corporeal manner First of all therefore Even as in the true knowledge of the first matter 1 Cor. ch 2. v. 7. but we speak of hidden things c. of the aforesaid terrene Philosophical stone for this is to be accounted of as a principal member or part and of highest concealment or secrecy t is very much behovefull for those who would prepare it Rom. 11. v. 33. Oh how profound c. and that endeavour thereby to obtain all that happiness as is provided by God for us to eternity and that are withall busied or seriously bent on the knowledge of the eternal heavenly stone that is of the true right and living God and Creator of heaven and earth his indissoluble triune essence tis I say needful that they do know further and more things and therefore also as I have shewed above in the first part the way of the entring upon it and the universal nature together with all its properties without which that work
edge to knowledge but do not at all bestow the knowledge for as for that It must arise from within from a knowledge and discerning understanding of those colours So likewise if any do desire from thee a material external fire or a Light or kindling out of a Pyrite or fire-stone wherein the fire or the light is hidden then t is expedient to make it manifest and extract as 't were out of the stone that same occult and secret fire and not to bring it into the stone the which is to be done by a steel as appertaining hereunto and by it the occult fire in the stone must be excited or stirred up the which fire must notwithstanding be received by a well prepared sutable firing or fewel and so blown up unless you 'l intend to have it vanish and be extinguished The which being so done you shal have a right shining brightsom fire and as long as you preserve and cherish it you may do therewith what you please according to your desire Even so likewise after the same manner is it with that divine Celestial hidden Light in man the which as we have said before doth not come into a man from without but rather proceeds from within outwards Now this may at the beginning be made bright by a true faith in God and then furthermore by mediums as reading hearing preaching and also afterwards by the holy Spirit which Christ hath restored unto us and hath promised to give us John 14. No man comes unto the Father but by me this may I say be enkindled in the obscure and darkish but yet glowing heart which is as 't were a prepared fire and be again rightly breathed on and made shining for in such an heart God will afterwards operate and work In such an ones heart as believes and in that one Light to which none can attain doth he desire to have his abode And although no man ever saw God with his external bodily eyes nor indeed can see him yet nevertheless may he be seen discerned and known by the internal eyes of the heart Moreover although that that clear Light hath sent forth its brightness into the whole world and doth as yet daily enlighten all men without any difference yet for all that the world because of its corrupt and depraved nature cannot or will not rightly see it much less know it and therefore also are there so many erroneous waies and dangerous opinions vented thereabouts The which is in this thing to be well considered of heeded and observed viz. That God hath not in vain and casually placed two eyes and as many ears in the top part of the body for he would thereby hint unto us viz. That t is expedient for a man to learn and give good heed unto a twofold sight and hearing viz. internal and external and by the internal to judge of spiritual things and the external is to perform its part 1 Cor. 2. The which distinction also in the Word of the Spirit and of the Letter is to be most diligently observed for the sake whereof even I also am willing here by way of admonition briefly to discover and in a few words only to the more simple sort whereby they may the better be informed and attain to the better and more commodious or profitable knowledge of the triune stone in which the very top of the thing lies Now even as the matter of the terrene Philosophical stone is of no value or esteem with the world but is rather wholly rejected as it were even so likewise Christ the eternal Word of the Father the most noble and celestial proved triune stone is dis-esteemed by the greater part of men in this world and is as 't were cast out of our sight and indeed to speak the truth there 's almost nothing more unworthy more vile and abject then the saving Word of God it self and therefore in 1 Cor. 3. it is accounted especially by the wise ones of this world for foolishness Nay it is not only so disesteemed and slighted but also condemned as Heretical and cast forth to banishment the which to hear it being so great a blasphemy is to a godly heart the highest grief But however be it as it will t is behoveful that the right believers be thereby tryed and that consequently the afore-mentioned testimonies be yet rightly fulfilled the which also John in his first Chapter testifies saying It viz. the Word was in the world and the world knew it not Likewise he came unto his own propriety and yet was not received by his own Even as also the Corporal and Terrene Water-stone of the Wise men whose vertue and efficacy is unsearchable is in reference to its matter called by the Philosophers by sundry names So likewise that Deity and that only light whose vertue and Omnipotency is in like manner unsearchable hath many various titles and names in the holy Scripture the chiefest of which we shall here orderly reckon up on both hands The stone of the Philosophers is called the most antient the hidden or unknown the natural incomprehensible celestial blessed consecrated stone of the wise men t is also called true without lyes the certainest of things most certain the secret of all secrets a divine vertue and efficacy hidden from fools the highest and the lowest that can be seen under heaven the wonderful Conclusion or knitter up of all Philosophick works t is likewise called a fit and perfect Agreement of all the elements an incorruptible body that can be touched by no element 'T is moreover called a Q. E. a double or twofold and vivifying ☿ which hath in it self a celestial Spirit the healing of all the sick and imperfect mettals the eternal light the highest medicine for all diseases the noble Phoenix the highest and most noble treasure or choicest good of nature the universal triune stone which is by nature conjoyned of three and yet nevertheless is but onely one yea t is generated and ingendred or effected out of one two three four and five Likewise 't is called the Catholick Magnesia or Sperm of the world and by many other such names and Titles as are to be found amongst the Philosophers all which titles may not unfitly be reckoned up and comprehended in the highest and most perfect number viz. a thousand Even as therefore now this terrene Philosophical stone I say hath as in reference to its matter many and divers yea almost a thousand titles as we have said and is therefore now and then called wonderful Even so likewise these and such like other afore-mentioned titles and names may be much rather and that also in the highest degree said or published of God the Omnipotent Good for verily God yea the Word of God his eternal Son is the right eternal precious and tryed corner-fundamental-stone which the builders rejected and banisht Isaiah 28. Psalm 118. Mat. 21. Acts 4. Rom. 9. 1 Pet. 2. He is the true the antient yea
that if you would bring your work to its effectual power and make your tincture to perfect the other simple mettals then 't is expedient that you put to your first matter and unite therewith a certain other metallick highly dignified body of near affinity to the aforesaid Prima materia and such as is most acceptable and grateful thereunto and you must reduce them into one body Even so is it here in the Theological work of the divine nature of the Son of God if we should well enjoy it and be made partakers thereof 't was behoovful that as it were another mettalline body that is flesh and blood the humanity or the humane nature which also is amongst all the highest dignified creatures of God in the earth the one that is nearest akin is also the most acceptable and the most grateful and besides is created after his nature adjoyned and united it self therewith and consequently 't was fitting that both were reduced and united into a certain undissolvable body But even as t is chiefly to be noted and observed in the aforementioned Philosophical work as we then informed you that even as this common or vulgar body of gold is not in the least agreeable or convenient for that work but because of its imperfection and many other various defects that it is subject unto is unprofitable and is to be accounted of as a dead thing and that likewise for that same reason there must be produced such a body as is clear and pure and without mixture and such as was never falsified by any deceit but is free from all impurity and without defect and what was never as yet debilitated in its eternal Sulphur Even so much less can there be or ought there to be any universal humane nature such as is conceived in sin polluted with original transgression and is daily falsified and defiled with real sins and preternatural infirmities under which all men do generally lie accepted of imputed to and incorporated with the divine essence of the Son of God but only the unmixed pure and perfect humanity void of all sin for if the earthly Adam who was but a creature only was afore the fall without sin and was an holy and perfect man how much more then is that celestial Adam which the only begotten Son of God hath in himself And therefore the celestial eternal fundamental and Corner-stone Jesus Christ according to the description of the Philosophick is and ever will be according to both his natures of a most highly admirable birth and rise and consequently of an unsearchable nature and property According or in relation to his divinity he was from eternity of the alone divine essence of his celestial and eternal Father true God yea the Son of God whose out-going as the Scripture testifies thereof was from the beginning and eternal Mich. 5. Psal. 2. Mat. 16. Col. 1. But as in reference to his humanity he was born in the fulness of time without sin and fault Isa. 53. John 8. according as the Scripture testifies a true and a perfect man with a body and also a soul Mat. 26. so that now he is of an indissolvable personal and God-man essence that is a true God and true man in one only person indissoluble to all eternity and must and ought to be so acknowledged and worshipped as God Omnipotent But yet notwithstanding it could be wished that the eyes of the greater part of the imaginary learned men were better opend and their dark spectacles and their sophistical vizards that hang before them were removed and that at length they might yet once recover their lost sight Luke 10. But especially all the Aristotelians and the sophisticate blind-sighted purblind as 't were in divine works amongst whom there have been so many various and divers disputations even to this very day in divine things too too unchristianlike nor is there any end at all of the manifold distinctions divisions and permixtions concerning the highly venerable Article of the union of natures and community as 't were of Idioms in Christ so well founded in the holy Scriptures 2 Tim. 3. But now if they will not believe God or his divine Word they may yet notwithstanding by the conjunction made of the said Chymicall work as afore-mentioned and by the unition of the two waters viz. of ☿ and ☉ know the essence and be able to feel him as it were with their fingers But alas the highest Scholastick art of their Ethnick or heathenish philosophy so little or meanly founded in the holy Scripture or in Christian Theologie and their fundamentals and Aristotelian precepts of no value or moment about substance and accidents and many other more devices do not at all lead them to the attainment thereof little considering that Tertullian that old man hath not in vain written That these Philosophers are the Patriarchs or chief Fathers of the Hereticks But we conceive it no waies worth our while to discourse more largely of this thing And moreover even as in the Philosophick work that said composition the two essences being conjoyned now together must be placed over the fire and be putrified ground or broken and be well boiled in which putrefaction and boyling there do until it be rendred more then perfect in the mean while manifold and various acts or scenes fall in between and divers colours do shew themselves about which you may find more written in the description of the terrene work Even so this God-man and man-God person Jesus Christ so appointed by God his heavenly Father in this world was cast into the firie furnace of tribulation and was therein well boyled as 't were that is he was encompassed with various troubles reproaches the Cross and tribulation and was changed and transmuted as 't were into various shapes that is he suffered hunger Mat. 4. then presently upon his receiving of baptism and after his devoting himself to the ministry of the preaching the holy divine Word he was by the impulse of the holy Spirit in the desart and there tempted by Satan and must there necessarily undergo with him a triple combate for a testimony and witness to all bought and purchased Christians as having entred upon Christianity and professing the faith of Christ are tempted by the Devil and are by various temptations again sollicited and enticed to a falling off from Christ. Likewise he was wearie in John 4. also he cryed and wept lamentably Luke 19. 41. also he trembled and was sore amazed Mark 14. he combated with death and sweated a sweat of blood was likewise taken and was bound Mat. 26. was smitten on the face by the high Priests servant was mocked derided spit on whipt crowned with thorns condemned to death and then fastned to the Cross which himself carried Joh. 19. betwixt two thieves had Gall and Vinegar given him to drink Psalm 69. and cryed out with a loud voice and commended his Spirit into the hands of God his Father expired